


Is It Me You're Looking For

by c00kie



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Hate to Love, Rivals to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-13 00:27:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4500744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c00kie/pseuds/c00kie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From the prompt:  We argue so much in class, we got kicked out. A series of tumblr drabbles that somehow made a fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Is It Me You're Looking For

“That was quite a passionate interpretation of the text, Ms. Knope,” Professor Howser declares, making Leslie smile as she sits back in her seat. 

“Passionate,” a voice pipes up from behind her, “and wrong.”

Leslie knows by now she shouldn’t respond to Ben’s ridicule, as it all it does is make her frustrated, but she can’t help but turn around to glare. “Is that so?”

“Yeah, it’s so,” Ben says, his brown eyes piercing into hers like daggers. “I invite you to read the text again, then maybe you’ll see how wrong you are.”

“Well, I invite you to to shut your face.”

“And I invite both of you to leave,” Professor Howser pipes in, making them both stop and look at him. 

“What?”

“This is the third time you two have disrupted my class. Now please leave. You can get the assignment for next class from your classmates.”

“But-” Leslie starts, but Howser just points to the door. She sighs and pack up her things, following Ben as he exits in a hurry, as if pursued by a bear. 

Halfway down the hall though, he slows and their steps become more in sync. “I can’t believe you got me kicked out of class. I have never been kicked out of a class in my life.”

He pushes the door open, “First time for everything.”

“That’s dumb,” Leslie says, stopping when Ben does in the middle of the courtyard that separates the humanities building with the sciences building. “I have a reputation to uphold.”

“You mean the one of you being a pain in the ass goody goody?”

Leslie rolls her eyes. “Like you’re so cool? You play Dungeons and Dragons.”

“Says the girl who writes Harry Potter fanfic.” 

“Spy!” Leslie jumps up and down, pointing her finger at him. “You spied on me!”

“I sit behind you. I can see everything you do.” Ben shrugs. “I had no idea there were so many wizarding spells for prophylactics.” 

She’s not going to win, she knows this, but she can’t just give up and let Ben think he’s won. And perhaps it’s the sun in her eyes, but he is rather cute in a huge jerk, great jaw kind of way. 

But before she can kiss him- just to shut him up- he says, “I need a coffee.You wanna come?”

“Yes,” she answers, “It’ll give me time to explain why you’re wrong.”

He starts walking. “Can’t wait.” 

2

All Ben wants to do is go to his room and sleep until dinner, but when he gets there, he’s greeted by his roommate Andy, making out with his girlfriend on his bed. 

“Get off my bed.”

Andy looks up and grins. “Hey! What are you doing here?”

“Yeah,” April adds, “Shouldn’t you be in class?”

“Shouldn’t you?” Ben responds, glaring back. April just raises her eyebrow and pulls Andy back down. 

He gives up and sits down on Andy’s bed instead. “I’m taking a nap,” he says,”Don’t have sex on my bed next to me.”

“It’s not like it would be the first time,” April says, and Ben can only gag as he lay his head down. Something pricks at his skin though, so he sits up and looks, seeing crumbs all over. 

“I need a new roommate,” Ben sighs. He needs a new roommate, and a new life. Maybe he should transfer. Then he won’t have to deal with Andy or April or the real reason he’s in a bad mood. 

He refuses to even think her name. Or think about her. At all. 

“Hey, babe?” Andy says, “I think I need to talk to Ben.”

“Ugh, fine. Come to my dorm when you’re done,” April says and after a few moments, she leaves. 

“Great,” Ben says. “Can I have my bed?”

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’m tired. I was up half the night- just let me have my bed, dude.”

Andy just smiles and pats the space next to him. “Come on, talk to me.”

“There’s nothing-” 

“Don’t make me put you in a headlock,” Andy says, and remembering what happened the last time, Ben sighs and sits next to him. “Is it Leslie?”

“Don’t say her name,” Ben says, glaring but Andy just grins back. “She’s the worst. She’s just a huge pain in the ass. Remember that time she got me kicked out of class and then lectured me for two hours?”

“Didn’t you ask her for coffee?”

“I thought it would get her to shut up.” Ben sighs. “But it didn’t. I swear, arguing with her is like arguing with the sun.”

Andy laughs. “Oh my god, you’re in love with her.”

“No I’m…” Ben cuts himself off, because the truth is staring him in the face, bright and beautiful and completely terrifying. “What the fuck?”

“You should ask her out.”

“Yeah, I’m not going to do that,” Ben says. It’s bad enough he likes her, he’s not going to make it worse by actually dating her. 

Andy shrugs and stretches out his arms as he stands up. “You should do it. You need a girlfriend, dude.”

“I don’t want a girlfriend,” Ben crawls under his covers, intent on falling asleep in the next two seconds. “I want to sleep.” 

“Sleep is awesome,” Andy agrees, “and I’m going now to sleep with April, because sleeping with someone is even more awesome.” 

Ben refuses to acknowledge any kind of truth in Andy’s statement. 

At least, not until he wakes up. 

3.

Leslie’s had three beers when the topic of Ben comes up. Technically it doesn’t come up so much as Leslie hears someone say the name Ben and she jumps in. “Did you say Ben? I hate that guy-” never mind that Ben is a rather common name and she has no way of knowing if her Ben is the one they’re talking about, and given their looks as she lectures them while they watch from the couch, it’s doubtful.

But Leslie’s too drunk to really care. 

“I mean what is up with his hair? It’s like pick a direction, bucko!”

“Bucko?” Someone asks, though Leslie ignore him. She also ignores the silent looks. Again, she is quite drunk. 

“And he thinks just because he has a nice butt and smart that he can just say whatever he wants and get away with it. Well I say no more! You know what we should do? We should file a complaint.”

“On Ben? but he’s such a nice-”

“Nice? You think Ben is nice? I bet you think Josef Stalin was nice too, whatever your name is.”

“Lisa.”

“Whatever, Lisa.” 

Someone sits down on the couch and asks what’s going on. 

“Well, it’s kind of hard to tell because she’s babbling, but I think she has a crush on some guy named Ben.”

“I do not.”

“You kind of do,” a girl says, “you should totally bone him.”

Leslie cannot even fathom the possibility of having a crush on Ben. It’s just. no. “If I had a crush on Ben, then why do I want to kiss him-no wait.”

“Wow.”

Leslie closes her eyes and wishes very hard that she wakes up from this terrible nightmare, or that the ground swallow her whole. Neither happen. When she opens then she feels dizzy, but ever so slowly she turns around. 

“H-how long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough to hear you want to kiss me,” Ben says, taking her arm. “C’mon, I’ll get you a coffee and we can talk about how you want me.”

“So typical. Thinking you can just pull me away form my friends-”

“Do you know those people?”

“No, but-” Whatever she’s about to say, and she really doesn’t know given she can’t keep her thoughts straight long enough to remember them, is interrupted by Ben spinning her into the wall. He stands close, so close that their noses touch and she can feel his breath on her face. 

“You’re drunk,” he says. 

Leslie swallows. “Yeah. What-”

“I can’t kiss you. You’re drunk.” He looks down, so she does too, in case there is something on her shoes that she needs to be looking at. “Fuck.”

“What?”

He backs away, and she misses him, even though he’s still rather close. “Come on, I’ll take you home.”

“What about the coffee?” she asks as they weave through the crowd, fingers intertwined. 

“We’ll get it on the way.”

4.

She wakes with a splitting headache and the desire to jump off a bridge. Or maybe she just feels like she jumped off a bridge. It’s hard to tell. The world feels like it’s been tilted on it’s axis and she’s now sideways. 

The lamp in the corner is mocking her. 

Leslie does the rational thing and turns around, so the only thing she has to face is the wall, but even that seems rather crooked. 

She closes her eyes. 

When Leslie wakes up, her room appears to be straight again, and the headache is now a dull thud. 

She hears footsteps. 

Leslie hopes it’s her roommate, but then she remembers the night before. It’s fuzzy, with bits and pieces missing, but she definitely remembers telling Ben he was to sleep on the couch in the common area of her dorm. 

And of course he actually did it. It was so typical of him- oh, she really shouldn’t have sat up so fast- but nevermind the dizziness- she has an accounting major to yell at. 

“What are you doing here?” 

He’s sitting on the couch, cup of coffee in his hand, Tom and Jerry playing in the TV. He looks at the coffee, then the TV, then her. “Writing my thesis.”

“Shut up.”

He smiles, and it’s the kind of smile that makes her think he might think she’s cute. “Did you have fun last night?”

“Not really.” Leslie doesn’t now why she’s admitting that. “Is there more coffee?”

“Of course,” Ben says.

Moments later, she’s sitting next to him, sipping from her cup. They don’t talk, for which she’s rather grateful. Instead they watch Tom try to catch Jerry, only to end up face to face with Spike the Bulldog. 

“I’m sorry I said all those things about you last night.”

“I’ve been called worse.”

Leslie doesn’t ask or wonder what he’s referring to, because she knows. She’s know ever since the first day they met, when she saw her face and remembered how she used to have his picture on her wall. She puts her cup down and turns her body towards his. He’s staring straight a head, his cup empty. 

“Do you want more?”

“Nah,” he says, standing up, his shirt riding up so she can see a bit of pale skin. “I better go. I’ve got a lot of work-”

“Okay,” she says, standing up too. “Thanks, by the way.”

“No problem,” Ben replies, lips curling up slightly before he opens her door. 

“Why didn’t you kiss me?” She doesn’t meant to say it, but it comes out without permission, making them both still until he turns around. 

“You..you were drunk.”

“I know. I mean, thank you. I just…You know what, forget it, just go. I’ll see you-”

The door closes and he takes a few steps toward her, until he’s standing as close as he was the night before. But there’s a difference this time, maybe it’s her sobriety, maybe it’s his. It could also just be a difference in location and the fact they’re alone. 

“Do you want me to kiss you now?”

“Do you want to kiss me now?”

“Yeah, but I can’t-”

“Oh.” The world tips again, and she can’t blame alcohol-”Well maybe-”

“If I kiss you, I’m not stopping, and I actually do have a paper due tomorrow.”

“Oh.” The world straightens. “So you do want-”

“Of course I want you,” Ben says, his tone leaving no doubt in her. “More than I should, actually, considering you’ve been nothing but a huge-”

“I changed my mind. I want you to leave and never come back.” 

He just laughs and kisses her cheek. “I’ll text you later.” 

Leslie closes the door after him, thinks about chasing him down to smash her face into his for twenty seconds, then she goes back to bed. 

5.

The next time Ben sees Leslie, it’s in class. She’s always the first to arrive, which has always confounded him, as he’s pretty sure she has a class across campus right before, and not only does she manage to get to there before anyone else but she looks great, no sweat or anything. 

He thinks she might be a super hero. 

“Hi,” he says, and she smiles at him as he sits down behind her. 

“Hi. Did you finish your paper?”

“Yeah. I was going to call you but it was late and I wasn’t sure if you were still awake-”

“I was.”

“It was like one in the morning.”

“Yeah, still awake. I only sleep four hours a night.”

Ben shakes his head at that, because he has to get at least eight or he feels like death. How is she not tired all the time? How does she have so much energy? How does she look so good? 

“Oh. Well I’ll remember that.” 

She smiles, just as Professor Howser walks in, shooting them both a don’t you dare mess with my class today glare. 

Halfway during class Ben leans down. “You wanna get lunch after this?” 

She nods and he sits back up, trying his best to concentrate on the lecture and not how shiny Leslie’s hair is until class is dismissed. 

When it is, Ben waits for Leslie gather her things, then they leave together, earning looks from their classmates. 

“I bet they did it,” someone says, so matter of fact that Ben almost wonders if she’s right. 

Leslie though, just pushes through the crowd until they reach a clear spot. “Where do you want to go?”

“Um, how about JJ’s?” 

Leslie stares at him for a minute, her eyes bright and wide and it makes Ben feel like he’s done something wrong, but then she’s kissing him, her fingers threading through his hair, drawing him closer, right in the middle of the hallway, completely uncaring that everyone is watching. 

But Ben doesn’t care either, because he’s making out with Leslie Knope and it’s the best thing to ever happen to anyone in the history of the world. How did he think he didn’t want this? This, her, is all he wants. 

“So, is that a yes to JJ’s?” he asks when they pull away. 

“Yes.” 

“Awesome,” he says, taking her hand as they start toward the parking lot, wondering what else it’ll take to get her to kiss him like that again. 

-

They’re waiting for their food when Leslie says, “Is this a date?”

“Um-”

“Sorry, it’s just, I need to know for my scrapbook.”

“Uh, what?” He asks as she takes a picture of him. “What?”

“Well I need to know what to call it? Is it Ben and Leslie’s first date jamboree or Ben and Leslie’s adventures in friendship?”

“Date,” he says, because he’s pretty sure you don’t just kiss your friends and then take them out for breakfast food. 

Although…

“Wait, you do want this to be a date, right?”

“Of course,” Leslie grins, “Now I need to take another picture of you. You look way too grumpy in that last one. People will think you weren’t enjoying yourself.”

Ben laughs and she snaps another picture.

“Great!”

Their food comes and there are more pictures and all Ben can do is take her in, try to memorize the moment. 

“So, are you going to scrapbook all of our dates?”

“Yes,” she says, gesturing their waitress for more whipped cream. Ben files the information in his mind for the future. 

“Just checking.”

Leslie though, tilts her head at him, but then her smile fades and she puts down her fork. “We need to talk.”

“Wow. We went from fighting to making out and now you’re saying we have to talk and we’re still in the middle of our first date. That has to be a record.”

She laugh. “No, i didn’t mean it like that. It’s nothing bad, at least I don’t think it is.” 

“Okay.”

“It’s just-” she takes a deep breath- “I just want to be honest, before this becomes real.” 

“Right.” He still has no idea what she’s talking about. “Go for it.”

She takes another breath. “I know who you are.” 

“I know,” he says, shrugging as he takes a bite of his omelet. “I should have gotten the pancakes.” 

“How?” 

Ben sighs, pushing his plate away. “First day of class, you heard my name and you turned around so fast and stared at me like I was a celebrity or something.”

“Oh.”

Ben shrugs. “Yeah. I’m actually kind of surprised you never said anything.”

“What would I say?” Leslie asks. “Personally I think you should be admired for what you did.”

“I bankrupted the city.”

“Not that part,” Leslie says with a roll of her eyes. “I mean running in the first place. That had to take courage.”

“I did it for a girl.”

“Did you get her?” 

“For about two minutes, yeah.”

“Well then, see? Worth it.”

Ben laughs, unable to do anything else. She laughs too, reaching out to grab his hand. He squeezes back, and it’s this moment, more than the kiss, more than her honesty, that makes him think they’re going to work. 

That, and when they’re walking to his car, she turns and says, “I hope you know just because we’re dating it doesn’t mean I’m not going to call you out during class.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Ben says, leaning down to kiss her. 

“Great,” she says when the kiss ends. “Now let’s go to your dorm and make out like bunnies.”


End file.
